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From: chmae@guug.de (Christoph Maethner)
Subject: Re: What are the various PC bassed Unix box OS?
Message-ID: <chmae.747045462@guug.de>
Keywords: pc,unix
Sender: news@regent.e-technik.tu-muenchen.de (News System.)
Organization: Technical University of Munich, Germany
References: <1993Sep02.184251.23903@engr.engr.uark.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1993 08:37:42 GMT
Lines: 57
bdj@engr.uark.edu (Bryan D. Jones) writes:
>What are the different PC bassed Unix Operating Systems available?
>What do they cost?
>What hardware requirements do they have?
>How difficult are they to install?
>As you can see I'm considering installing a UNIX type OS on my
>home computer. If it helps I'm running a 386DX40 with 4MB
>--
>|Bryan D. Jones Computing Services |
>|Internet: bdj@engr.uark.edu University of Arkansas |
>|Internet: bdj@uafhp.uark.edu Bitnet bdj@uafsysb |
From my personal private experience, with a 386DX40 with (only) 4MB
RAM you should only run unix-systems without X.
Any SystemVRel.4 should do .
I used to use the Consensys V.4 on a 386SX20 with 4 MB and it worked, though
it wasn't exactly a runner. Now on a 386DX25 with 8 MB I use a SysVR4.2
from Onsite a german USL-licencee including X and it works fine. There
is nothing else making a unix-system faster than RAM and fast disks.
I don't think I will ever need a 486 , I would perfer more RAM.
Installation never was much of a problem. But if you are unlucky, your
mainboard or the rs232 interface card or something else is not compatible
and the system will not boot.
I strongly recommend to order a tape or cdrom as installation media. Using
floppies will be a pain. It can take up to 12 hours to install a complete
system. If wyou use a qic-tape it will cost you the extra money for the
tapedrive, but you have a backup-device then. Believe me, you will stop
making backups on floppies soon. And even for a home-computer backups are
necessary, I can tell.
I don't know about the prices in the us - in germany it is considerable
expensive to buy a commercial implementation. Nevertheless I recommend
those before linux, which is free, if you want to learn about the
standards implemented in the commercial systems.
As I mentioned before, this is my personal experience.
Chris
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Christoph Maethner voice +49 211 990 77 81
systems engineer fax +49 211 990 75 70
Rank Xerox Germany
e-mail chmae@guug.de
mae.sbd@rxg:Xerox:com
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